Media flocked to The City of London Distillery (COLD) on Friday evening to celebrate its five years of successful trading. A preview in The Times business pages promoted the anniversary event, which was attended by journalists from outlets including Press Association, Sainsbury’s Magazine, The Cocktail Lovers, Mayfair Magazine and BBC Good Food.

The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor Alderman Charles Bowman toasted COLD’s success, with special recognition as the only gin distillery in London’s Square Mile and the first for over 200 years.

Jonathan Clark, MD of The City of London Distillery, created a bespoke limited edition gin for the Lord Mayor – The City of London Distillery Lord Mayor’s Gin – to mark the five-year anniversary, which was distilled with five botanicals: juniper, coriander, angelica, liquorice, lemon and cubeb berries.

The City of London Distillery has plans to treble growth across all trade channels over the next five years, in London, nationally and via export markets and global travel retail.

As the nation tuned in to watch this series’ final episode of BBC Two’s Peaky Blinders, we were wrapping up a launch campaign for Peaky Blinder spirits – a Spiced Dry Gin, Black Spiced Rum and triple-distilled Irish Whiskey – all inspired by flavours from the 1920s and the product of Sadler’s, whose pubs the real Peaky Blinders gang used to frequent.

Our journalist contacts loved this one! In just two weeks we generated a reach of over 11 million consumers via editorial in Metro, Shortlist, Maxim, Ladbible, Unilad, Independent, Sunday Mirror, Digital Spy, Yahoo! and many, many others.

Needless to say we’ve supported Sadler’s sales in the run up to Christmas and we look forward to supporting this brand as we near series 5 in Spring 2019.

Many media turned out to last night’s event at The Shard to celebrate Tsingtao Beer’s new look bottle.

The Telegraph, Mail Online, Daily Express, Closer magazine, as well as many food, drink and lifestyle writers, came to view ‘London’s Highest Art Gallery’, which we helped Tsingtao to host, in conjunction with ArtChina.

The social media buzz was high as guests took selfies holding bottles of Tsingtao in front of the view.

An amazing turn out at an amazing venue – we even attracted a few people off the telly… TV chef Jeremy Pang and Gogglebox’s William Hartston.

We are really pleased to be working with Kent-based rexmartins, the UK’s leading supplier of commercial catering equipment.

Working alongside rexmartin’s marketing team, we will be helping to raise awareness of the company’s new own-label range of energy efficient and space saving kitchen equipment to the education, hospitality and care home sectors.

Martin Porter, Managing Director, rexmartins says: “This is an exciting time for rexmartins as we diversify into manufacturing our own product range and awareness among our target markets is key. Chapman Poole has the right contacts and team seniority to work alongside us as we grow.”

This type of exposure is considered more credible than advertising as the coverage is a result of the journalist’s interest, rather than the company paying to be on the channel. This gives a much higher ROI and typically, a very low cost in terms of customer reach.

However, preparation is key. Clients are often already experts within their own company and industry, but they’ll also need to be knowledgable about the show they’ll be appearing on, the presenters conducting the interview and the wider news agenda – all of which will affect the angle of the interview.

To stay focused on the messages clients want to communicate it helps to have two or three strong key messages which can be referred to in the interview.

Despite this preparation, presenters of live shows often don’t decide on the exact line of questioning until just before the interview itself, so the most important preparation is to learn how to be relaxed and controlled in what can otherwise be a potentially nerve-racking situation. This is why we employ a former BBC reporter to deliver media training to ensure each interview opportunity, such as this one for Halewood, is maximised.

Just two weeks ago – it’s taken that long to recover – we arranged to takeÂ journalists from the Evening Standard, i, Mail on Sunday, Shortlist, Sainsbury’s Magazine and Craft Beer Channel to China for client Tsingtao Beer, the world’s second largest beer brand.

The aim was to take the writers to the source of the Tsingtao product, enabling them to educate their readers about the brand and why it’s becoming so popular now in the UK.

Starting in Beijing, with a tour of The (vast) Forbidden City and some haggling in the Silk Market, we then sampled Beijing’s street food and toured some of the local brew pubs. This provided a great grounding in Chinese beer culture in general.

Then, we arrive in Qingdao, aka ‘Beer Town, home to the Tsingtao Brewery and Tsingtao Museum. The journalists discovered more about the heritage of Tsingtao, which dates back to 1903.

We even hot-footed it up into the Laoshan mountains to the source of where Tsingtao harvests the spring water for its beer.

But nothing… nothing…. could prepare us for China’s International Beer Festival. Quite possibly the loudest, most colourful and crazy beer festival ever!

Tsingtao stole the show with its almighty structure – forming the hub of the Festival, it was the size of a small town with its live entertainment, multiple bars, VIP suites, squid-on-a-stick snacks and stations where people were buying beer poured straight in carrier bags.

The journalists partied like celebrities as the Chinese queued for pictures with them – beards and bald heads are not so common in China so we sparked quite a bit of attention!

Here’s the first piece on the Craft Beer Channel. We’ll be updating this with more links as the coverage is published. An amazing trip and a great education piece for Tsingtao.

Manchester-based Artisan Investments Ltd has hired Chapman Poole Communications to provide PR support for its hotel and aparthotel properties.

Working alongside Artisan’s marketing team, Chapman Poole will be helping drive up occupancy at The Ainscow Hotel and Spa, a boutique property in Salford and The Block aparthotel on Liverpool’s waterfront.

Moya Ball, Managing Director, Artisan Investments says: “This is a key time for Artisan, our vision to grow is stronger than ever. We are investing in our current portfolio to make it the best it can possibly be and we have new developments in the pipeline. Chapman Poole has the right mix of property and hospitality experience to herald the great work we’re doing. Exciting times.”

Artisan Investments is a pioneering business specialising in the regeneration of brownfield sites. The company transforms historic buildings into vibrant leisure and residential accommodation.

The company was founded in 2000 by the late Carol Ainscow, whose inspirational vision transformed huge parts of Manchester. Carol’s sister, Moya Ball, took the helm at Artisan in 2013.

Artisan has been instrumental in the revival of Manchester City Centre, including major developments on Canal Street, Regency House opposite Sackville Park, Vulcan Mill and Albion Mill on Pollard Street in Ancoats and Express Networks on Great Ancoats Street.

We have been hired by Halewood International to provide PR support for the launch of a new Irish whiskey blend by legendary Celtic punk band, The Pogues.

The official whiskey of the legendary Irish band was launched at The Whiskey Show in London earlier this month.

The Pogues is one of three products from West Cork Distillers, which Halewood International will be distributing in the UK, China, South Africa, Romania, duty free and travel retail. The other whiskeys are a ten-year-old West Cork Single Malt and West Cork Original, a blend of single malt and grain whiskey.

James Wright, Director of Spirits and Agency Brands at Halewood International says: “Chapman Poole has the national infrastructure and drinks contacts ready to go, we’ve worked with the agency for several years and know we’ll get the best results.”

Agatha Chapman-Poole, founder, Chapman Poole Communications says: “The Pogues are very much a Christmas institution and The Pogues’ whiskey is a fabulous product. We’re really excited to be tasked with spreading the word in the run up to Christmas.”

The PR is part of an integrated sales and marketing campaign for the West Cork whiskeys, which also includes experiential and social media activity.